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    1. Microgrids

    Feds planning $20M Microgrid for DC Health Care Campus

    April 25, 2022
    The microgrid will help critical facilities to maintain power in the event of a larger utility grid outage. Those facilities on campus will include the new Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center, GW Health, a men’s shelter and emergency operations center
    Image credit DC government
    St Elizabeths East Dc 6266a1c4c91bd

    The Federal Energy Management Agency will fund a $20 million microgrid to support operations at the St. Elizabeths Hospital east campus in Washington, DC.

    FEMA and other agencies joined with the local mayoral leaders to announce the award as part of the federal group’s new Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program. This is the first FEMA-funded microgrid project in the nation.

    The microgrid will help critical facilities to maintain power in the event of a larger utility grid outage. Those facilities on campus will include the new Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center, GW Health, a men’s shelter and emergency operations center.

    “For DC to thrive in the face of our changing climate, we must take a comprehensive approach to building resilient neighborhoods,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser. “We are incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made on the St. Elizabeth East campus. We set a vision for housing, health care, and entertainment with the Ward 8 community, and today, that vision is coming to life. Now, this new microgrid continues our commitment to create a campus that is resilient and sustainable and that serves the community well for generations to come.”

    Microgrids are on-site or nearby power resources which can include rooftop and solar photovoltaic panels, battery storage, combined heat and power facilities and generators. DC has a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

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    The release about the DC microgrid at St. Elizabeth did not detail components of the system.

    St. Elizabeths Hospital is the district’s public psychiatric hospital. It opened more than 160 years ago and, now, its western campus is the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and various offices, while the eastern side remains a mental health facility.

    In addition to Homeland Security, other agencies involved in the St. Elizabeths microgrid award include the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the Office of Unified Communications, and the Department of General Services.

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    (Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]).

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    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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